November 7, 2008

Acts of racism have popped up in parts of the tri-state area since Barack Obama was elected president on Tuesday night.

In the latest, a family who had supported Obama's campaign emerged from their home in the northwestern New Jersey town of Hardwick Thursday morning to find the charred remnants of a 6-foot wooden cross on their front lawn.

Pieces of a homemade bed-sheet banner reading "President Obama -- Victory '08," which had been stolen from the yard the night before, also were found, leading investigators to believe the banner had been wrapped around the cross before it was set afire.

Lt. Gerald Lewis of the New Jersey State Police said his agency is treating the incident as a bias crime.